Agur 2017: the year in review

It’s been seven years since the Etxepare Basque Institute was first started. Over the years Etxepare has racked up a long list of achievements raising the profile of Basque language and culture around the world.

It’s been seven years since the Etxepare Basque Institute was first started. Over the years Etxepare has racked up a long list of achievements raising the profile of Basque language and culture around the world.

The Institute has continued these efforts in 2017, consolidating projects and creating new ways to disseminate Basque culture. To this end, Etxepare participates in a range of EU projects. For example, as a member of the European Union National Institutes for Culture, EUNIC, Etxepare has contributed with initiatives such as Transpoesie and the Brussels Comic Strip Festival, Fête de la BD. It has also created networks between artists and creative workers in the Basque Country and Aquitaine with the project Aquitaine.eus. This year also saw the launch of Creadis 3, a EU initiative aimed at bolstering the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI) and building a supportive ecosystem that will put the Basque Country on the cultural and creative map of Europe.

This year the Institute has once again supported Basque culture by awarding annual grants across a range of fields: translation (14 recipients); theatre, music and dance tours (90 recipients); travel packages for filmmakers and writers (41 recipients); and mobility grants for the promotion of plastic and visual arts.

The Institute has also promoted Basque presence in fairs, festivals and important events in partnership with other entities. With the initiatives Basque Audiovisual, Basque Dance and Basque Music, Etxepare has helped artists, creators, companies and enterprises showcase their work abroad and has organized stands to display the latest products and events in the culture industry.

Extepare has also continued to put its energy into promoting other cultural initiatives, including the Etxepare-LABORAL Kutxa Translation Prize (Yaroslav Gúbarev - ‘Memoirs of a Basque Cow’), the Best album in Euskera at the Independent Music Awards, Premios MIN (Niña Coyote eta Chico Tornado), and the Musika Bulegoa Sariak awards (Berri Txarrak). It has also continued working its work on different exchange and artist-in-residence programmes, such as the residencies in Wroclaw, Poland.

In the area of universities, Etxepare has kept up its efforts in the academic realm. This year more than 1500 students have studied Basque language and culture through the efforts of 30 readers across 34 universities in 18 countries. In addition to teaching Euskera, the readers have also organized cultural activities of all kinds, including film screenings and lectures by a wide variety of Basque artists and writers. Yet another year Extepare supported the international presence of the Korrika, now in its 20th edition, and the International Day of Euskera. And academic programmes have also been carried out as part of the eight Chairs in Basque Studies at universities outside the Basque Country. Noteworthy this year is the new Jean Haritschelhar Chair at Université Bordeaux Montaigne in France.

Last but not least, two training courses were again organized and consolidated: the Excellence in Basque Studies summer course enjoyed its seventh edition, and the course for Basque language teachers abroad once again brought in experts to train future readers.